More Articles

The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

By Chad Bray and Reuben KyamaThe New York Times • Monday April 7, 2014 2:13 AM

LONDON — Science-fiction writers have long envisioned a cashless society. But some places have
taken bigger steps in that direction than others.

The London transit agency, for instance, is trying out a new payment system that will allow
passengers to tap a debit card on an electronic reader at a subway station and board the London
Underground. In Sweden, consumers are increasingly using their phones for purchases at retailers or
to buy a hamburger at McDonald’s or Burger King. And in Kenya, consumers are bypassing the
traditional banking system and using a cellphone-based money transfer and microfinancing service
instead.

Yet the United States, a far bigger economy than the others, has been much slower in adopting
interconnected, speedy and secure solutions for making electronic payments.

In fact, it is the size of the U.S. market that is a major reason for the delay. The costs of
outfitting retailers with new equipment are much higher. And there have been disagreements among
technology providers over what standards to use.

That is not to say that all U.S. cities are behind their foreign counterparts. But the advances
seem to be in pockets of the economy. Transit systems in Chicago, Boston and Washington, for
example, have adopted proprietary payment cards that need only a tap, not a swipe. Some transit
systems allow customers to buy their tickets online and download them to their smartphones.

Elsewhere in the world, advances are more commonplace.

Shashi Verma, the director of customer experience for London’s transit agency, Transport for
London, said the agency is involved in a trial in which so-called contactless payment cards — debit
or credit cards bearing a computer chip — are being tested to replace the system’s Oyster smart
card as the main way to enter and exit London’s transit.

Bank cards have been used for pay-as-you-go rides on London buses for the past 15 months and
will be accepted across the entire subway system this year.

The agency expects bank cards to replace the Oyster card as the primary method for monthly
passes for the subway within two years, Verma said. In the future, riders might be able to board
the system just by tapping a mobile phone, he said.